World Cross Country switched again

Paula Radcliffe will have to change her travel plans

The World Cross Country Championships have been moved for the second time in a week.

The event which will take place on 24/25 March was originally due to be held in the Republic of Ireland, but was moved to Brussels, the Belgian capital, on Tuesday.

On Thursday it was decided to re-locate the Championships to Ostend.

The second switch was announced by Lamine Diack, the president of the International Amateur Athletics Federation, who said that not enough hotel rooms were available in Brussels.

The switch came at the suggestion of the Belgian Athletics federation, which said that Ostend, Belgium's biggest coastal resort, had more hotel rooms available, since it is off-season.

This would have been the biggest event ever staged in Ireland

  Christy Wall, head of Dublin's organising committee

Some 1,500 athletes from 70 countries are expected to compete.

The IAAF took the original decision to move the Championships from Dublin because of the foot-and-mouth scare.

The Irish ministry of agriculture had refused to back measures taken by the local organisers aimed at preventing the disease entering the country.

"The ministry of agriculture were not prepared to give the event their blessing," said Christy Wall, head of the local organising committee.

"It's going to cost us as much not to host the event - £1m - as it would have done if we had held it," he added.

Big name athletes scheduled to race in the championships include Irish star Sonia O'Sullivan and Britain's Paula Radcliffe.

Sonia O'Sullivan: Ireland's gold medal hope

Wall, who had worked on the organising of the championships for the past 18 months along with 700 volunteers, warned that the cancellation set a dangerous precedent for sporting events in Ireland.

"This would have been the biggest event ever staged in Ireland," he said.

"The cancellation of this event has implications for sports in this country and its relation to farming.

"Farming is of course hugely important to the economy but if they (the government) set such a precedent with these championships then other world sports federations will be reluctant to stage events here," he added.

The defending long-course men's World Champion is Belgium's Mohammed Mourhit who won last year in Portugal.

Belgian officials are confident that they will be able to host the event successfully.